McDonnell possible candidate for BC job?

DURHAM — According to the Boston Globe, University of New Hampshire head coach Sean McDonnell is a possible candidate for the opening at Boston College.

Frank Spaziani was fired over the weekend after four seasons with the Eagles. His tenure ended after the team went 2-10 this year and did not qualify for a bowl for the second straight season.

McDonnell, who is in his 14th season at UNH, served as a graduate assistant at Boston College in 1988 and has worked at BC’s summer football camp. He was also an assistant for three years at Boston University in the mid-80s.

The Globe named former Wildcat assistant and Cleveland Browns quarterbacks coach Mark Whipple as another possible candidate. Whipple won a Division I-AA national championship in 1998 as the head coach at UMass.

Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen, a New Hampshire native, and Harvard’s Tim Murphy, a former head coach at Maine, were also mentioned in the article as possible candidates.

McDonnell and UNH have enjoyed great success over the past decade. He recently collected his 100th coaching win this season and has led the Wildcats to nine consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament, including the No. 1 seed in 2005 when he was named national coach of the year.

McDonnell’s overall record at UNH is 104-65. He was an assistant at UNH for eight years, including the offensive coordinator for five, before taking over for Bill Bowes in 1999.

The Wildcats are currently preparing for a second-round FCS playoff game at Wofford on Saturday.